ANDREW Watson says he is looking forward to stretching his car’s legs at Donington Park’s longer Grand Prix layout, the venue for this weekend’s Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship triple-header.
At 2.49-miles in length, the GP configuration adds over half-a-mile onto each lap, with the run from Coppice to The Esses, and the stretch to the Melbourne Hairpin the fastest parts of the track.
It made its long-awaited return to the UK’s leading tin top series last season after a lay-off that stretched back to 2002 and immediately found favour with all the current teams and their drivers.
Donaghmore man Watson is keen to maximise the potential of his UK-built car as Donington Park is the antepenultimate meeting of 2024, with only visits to Silverstone and Brands Hatch GP to follow.
“The GP loop definitely adds another dimension, especially with the two slow-speed, technical hairpins at the end of the lap,” said Watson, who is currently fourteenth in the Championship standings on eighty-five point as his search for a first, top-three finish of the campaign continues.
“There is a lot of time to be won and lost there, particularly through the last corner back onto the start/finish straight
“It produces great racing with more overtaking opportunities than the ‘National’ layout, and we are all very much looking forward to it. We have been on primarily tight and twisty circuits since Oulton Park in June, so it will be nice to open the car up a bit more again around a bigger track.”
The race-winning speed of the Speedworks Motorsport-run Toyota Corolla GR Sport – combined with the generous allocation of hybrid boost Watson will be able to call upon for qualifying on Saturday afternoon (3.05pm-4pm) – should strengthen his chances of nailing down a place on the first three rows of the grid for Sunday morning’s (11.30am) opening 14 lap contest in Derbyshire.
He added: “Hybrid, I think, will be quite significant. We have seen that its effect varies from one track to the next, but it does tend to shake things up, which is exactly what it was intended to do.
”Having the full allocation like we do should make a difference; it’ll come down to us to figure out where we need to use it to take maximum advantage. We will be pushing hard for strong results.
“We have obviously had some good track time at Donington already this year, and we qualified well around the ‘National’ circuit back at the start of the season, so we know the car is quick there.
”We have clearly made a step forward with the Toyota since then so I think we should be in decent shape. The car is in a good place now, we’re building from weekend to weekend, and team spirits are high.”